Saturday, March 17, 2012

Do budgies get seasick?

Photo © parrot - heaven on tumblr

I started wondering about this after we bought our budgies a swing. Frodo is having a lot of fun with it and he keeps rocking back and forth, sometimes while he's hanging upside down. I know that if it was me, I would get seasick very quickly, as I'm very sensitive to motion. But is it the same for budgies? Here's the answer.

Like humans, budgies can experience motion sickness and they can throw up when it gets too bad. A budgie's brain can receive conflicting messages - from his eyes and the rest of his body - about whether he is in motion or not. There are certain factors adding to this problem, like stress and exhaustion or a lack of oxygen. Never feed your budgie right before you're taking him on a car trip.

If you need to travel somewhere, you'd better start with short distance trips to determine whether motion sickness is a problem for your budgie. Make sure to provide enough oxygen throughout the whole ride. It also helps to cover the cage and play some soothing music, so your budgie can relax more easily.

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